There are a couple of these games every season, and every once in a while, one will grab some major headlines due to superior scoring and defensive futility. Week 4 of the 2017 football season gave us that game when on Thursday night Campbell triumphed over Fannindel, 125-122. That combined total of 247 points sets a new record in Texas High School Football beating out the 232 points scored by Fort Davis (124) and Midland Trinity (108) in 2011.

While the score is the first thing that jumps out at you, there are other things about this game that make it special; mainly the chain of events as to how this game ended.

In the first quarter, a Fannindel player suffered a concussion that the coaching staff didn’t learn about until halftime. It was at that point they realized that it could be a serious injury. The player was taken to the ambulance, worked on and monitored there up to the start of the fourth quarter, when the coaching staff was informed they wanted to have the player airlifted to the hospital. At that point, Campbell was in the midst of a big comeback and Fannindel head coach Erik Pevey decided that he would let the game play out as long as possible to give Campbell a fair chance at winning.

With about seven minutes left to play, Campbell took their first lead since the opening drive of the game, and it was then the Fannindel staff thought it was the best time to ask for the game to be ended early, so they could all focus on their injured comrade. In addition to this, Fannindel had two others leave with concussion like symptoms, one go out with a sprained knee, one sprained ankle and one separated shoulder. They finished the game with only two starters on the field and a hodgepodge of players filling in, playing out of position.

The game started out with Campbell recovering an onside kick and scoring on 31-yard pass from Matthew Morris to Danny Harrison on the first play of the game, taking an early 6-0 lead. Morris would finish with 325 yards and nine touchdowns passing and Harrison with 191 yards, four touchdowns receiving on just six catches. Fannindel then scored 6 unanswered touchdowns and held an early 39-6 lead, thanks largely to recovering three onside kicks and a Campbell fumble, with the game still in the first quarter. At the end of the first quarter the score stood at 52-18 in favor of Fannindel.

The Falcons made the first score of the second quarter on a 20-yard run by Dayton Dunbar to extend their lead to 41 points and after trading scores still held a 41-point lead at 73-32. It was here where Campbell started their comeback. The Indians scored the final two touchdowns of the first half to go into the locker room down 73-46.

Campbell continued their run, jumping out to start the second half, when Danny Harrison returned the opening kickoff 51 yards for a touchdown, then recovered the ensuing onside kick. They scored quickly again, this time on a 15-yard Nate Dart run, to cut the Fannindel lead to just 14, 73-59. The rest of the third quarter was a back and forth affair, with Campbell slowly chipping away at the Fannindel lead with their extra points.

Entering the fourth quarter, the Falcon lead was down to seven points, 109-102. In the final quarter, running back Nate Dart, who led all rushers with 259 yards and 6 touchdowns on 18 carries, came up big for the Indians, as he scored all three of their touchdowns. Recovering onside kicks played a major role in their epic comeback victory, including a key one after Dart scored on a 40-yard run early in the fourth. The ensuing 2-point conversion cut the Fannindel lead to 5, 122-117. After the recovery on the kickoff, Dart scored again on the very next play, a 35-yard run, to take the lead. Campbell converted the 2-point PAT and at this point the coaches agreed to end the game with 7:35 left in the fourth quarter, capping off the scoring feast and Campbell’s epic comeback.

The two teams combined for 1,361 total offense (Fannindel 713, Campbell 648), with 37 touchdowns scored. Fannindel actually scored more, with 19 to Campbell’s 18. However, Campbell converted seven 2-point PAT kicks (including the critical final two) and 3 1-point PATs, while Fannindel only converted on eight of their 19 1-point PAT attempts.

For Fannindel, Tyreke Cuba was all over the place! Cuba fielded five kickoffs, returning three for touchdowns and accounted for 185 return yards. He also scored four rushing touchdowns, with 103 yards on just six carries, caught six passes for 226 yards and 5 touchdowns, and threw for 57 yards and two touchdowns as well. He also converted a 1-point PAT and passed for another. That is 386 yards of total offense, 514 all-purpose yards, 73 points scored himself, and a helping hand in 13 more points. Falcon QB Layne Miller, who entered the game as the state’s leading passer in six-man with 775 yards passing, added to that total and led all passers with 357 yards and seven touchdowns.

Campbell QB Matthew Morris connected with his receivers for more touchdowns with nine.

One of the oddities of this game is that fact that these two teams played the previous week in a game which Fannindel won, 106-56. It was the third meeting of the season, as they also scrimmaged each other before the start of the season.

To me, the most important thing about this game is how the Fannindel coaching staff, namely HC Erik Pevey, conducted themselves in regard to player’s safety, fair play and sportsmanship, as they could have fought to end the game early with the lead in the 4th quarter, but instead gave Campbell a fair chance at taking the lead, and once they did, it was THEN they decided to end the game early. Hats off to Coach Pevey and his staff! As well as all the players and coaches in this track meet of a game!